[2] He received his bachelor's degree from Auburn University in 1962 where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity and editor of the student newspaper, The Plainsman.
[3] As editor of The Plainsman, Bullington wrote an editorial in 1961 condemning attacks in Alabama on the "Freedom Riders" and calling for desegregation at Auburn University.
The editorial provoked a Ku Klux Klan cross-burning at his fraternity house as well as criticism from the Governor of Alabama, John Patterson, who threatened to cut Auburn's appropriations if Bullington were not removed as editor.
The American Association of University Professors stepped in to intervene on Bullington's behalf, and he continued as editor for his full one-year term.
[7] During the 1968 Tet Offensive Bullington was trapped behind enemy lines in Hue and disguised himself as a French priest to escape.
His experience has been chronicled in several books and articles, most notably in Mark Bowden's Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.
[7][9] He came out of retirement in 2012-2014 to lead a State Department "expeditionary diplomacy" effort to help resolve the long-running Casamance conflict in Senegal.